Business owners meet on foreign-worker registration

Area business owners and public officials continued educational efforts aimed at solving the crisis over foreign laborers at a meeting in Pattaya.

The Pattaya City Entrepreneur Federation organized the meeting on foreign-labor registration July 8 following announcements by the National Council on Peace and Order to both clamp down on human trafficking and use of illegal migrant laborers in the construction, fishing and domestic-service industries.

Banglamung District Chief Sakchai Taengho (left) and Pattaya City Entrepreneur Federation President Sa-nga Kitsamret (right) meet with representatives of the public and private sectors to explain the registration process for foreign workers.

The impending crackdown ignited a historic exodus of Cambodians back to their homeland amid rumors or beatings and arrests by the military. The rumors proved untrue, but more than 200,000 Cambodians fled Thailand, leaving construction sites across the Eastern Seaboard with a severe shortage of workers.

The junta has since offered limited amnesty for illegals, allowing employers to register their remaining labor force before the end of July, permitting them to obtain 60-day temporary work visas. The NCPO opened two registration centers in Chonburi, as well as six other provinces.

Banglamung District Chief Sakchai Taengho and federation president Sa-nga Kitsamret met with participants both from the public and private sectors to discuss the new labor environment and explain the registration process.

Officials explained the junta’s position and the process for registering foreign workers.